Ficlet: Even Better

Title: Even BetterAuthor: KishPairing: TezuRyoRating: PGNote: I was messing around trying to write for pillarchallenge, and this was the result. My first attempt at a "no dialogue" fic, so probably quite crappy.

~Even Better~

Ryoma knew that all the girls were stupid in the way they approached Tezuka. They’d been stupid in junior high, and they hadn’t become any smarter now. The girls stood around in giggling bunches, chattering like sparrows when Tezuka walked by. They came up to give their gifts in groups, too, all of them talking and laughing at once as they practically threw armfuls of chocolates into Tezuka’s hands until the tennis captain was so burdened that he nearly ended up dropping something.

In a word, stupid.

Tezuka accepted everything, of course. He was too polite to turn any of them down, even when their behavior was outright rude. Ryoma would have knocked them down a peg or two with some scathing comment. But he knew that Tezuka would never, ever do such a thing, no matter how much Ryoma tried to persuade him into it.

So, because Tezuka wouldn’t do anything to deter his legions of admirers, it was up to Ryoma to make his buchou’s Valentine’s Day tolerable...or even better.

***

At school the next day, Ryoma arrived to find Tezuka already mobbed by dozens of girls in the hallway. They sounded like a group of chickens more than anything, all squawking and clucking at each other. Ryoma made a little sound of disgust. His eyes met Tezuka’s over the girls’ heads, and clearly Ryoma was the only one there who could see that Tezuka wasn’t enjoying himself.

It was lucky he was as impolite and belligerent as he was, or the plan never would have worked. He forced his way through the crowd of girls, some of whom tried to give him candy too. He ignored all of them, using a well-placed elbow in the ribs here, a shove there.

And then he was right beside Tezuka, as he’d intended. He met Tezuka’s eyes again. Tezuka gazed down at him, his hands full of flowers and chocolates and stuffed bears with hearts. Ryoma grinned up at Tezuka, who was still a good three or four inches taller. He held out a hand, palm flat, with a single candy heart lying in the center of it. Love you. He made sure to hold it so all of the girls could see it. Then he curled his hand over the heart and tucked it carefully into the side pocket of Tezuka’s uniform.

For the first time that day, Tezuka smiled just a little. All of the girls subsided for a moment. Ryoma didn’t look at them, or at anything but Tezuka, but he knew that they were probably staring.

He made his exit the same way he’d made his entrance, pushing through the mob without any fanfare. He could feel Tezuka’s eyes watching him long after he’d made it into the clear part of the hallway. What he didn’t see were the many other pairs of eyes also watching his departure...some a little more stunned than Tezuka’s.

***

Ryoma didn’t even notice when girls gave him strange looks as he went by in the hallway. He was too busy watching the girls waiting outside of Tezuka’s chemistry class. They were, if anything, even noisier than the ones earlier.

Ryoma waited at the back of this crowd. A few other boys walked out of class first, glancing warily at the girls as they edged their way past. Then Tezuka appeared, not showing any trepidation even though Ryoma knew he probably felt it. The hall erupted into pandemonium as the girls adopted a kill-or-be-killed philosophy, practically shoving and hitting and pulling each other’s hair in order to get closer. Ryoma was the only one who saw Tezuka flinch.

Ryoma pushed around them, a single male in a group of crazy females. He still didn’t notice the sideways glances and the surprised looks that accompanied his passing.

The girls took even more notice when Ryoma slipped his hand into Tezuka’s. Ryoma felt the slight pressure of Tezuka squeezing his hand lightly. Ryoma looked up at Tezuka again with the look of the cat who’d caught the canary.

Ryoma gave the girls a scowl, and mouthed the word, Mine, as he pulled an unprotesting Tezuka away. Their stares followed the two all the way down the hallway.

***

They always ate lunch with the rest of the old Seigaku regulars. Ryoma couldn’t understand why all of them were looking at him so strangely. Oishi and Momo and Taka and Kaidoh all let their gazes slide away from Ryoma, almost looking as though they were suppressing laughter. Eiji was snickering, and Fuji and Inui wore twin looks of amusement. Ryoma thought maybe they’d heard about his public displays of affection earlier.

Ryoma sat down next to Tezuka, scooting over so their arms were almost touching. It was Tezuka who moved over so that his arm rested lightly against Ryoma’s. They stayed that way throughout lunch.

One girl wandered over with a Valentine at one point, then her eyes widened and she changed her course, looking dumbfounded.

***

Ryoma started to pull off his uniform shirt to change into his tennis outfit. He was feeling a little bit cranky. The girls were leaving Tezuka alone, all right, but the other tennis players were acting really weird.

Then Ryoma’s hand touched a piece of paper. He blinked. He heard someone laugh, then heard someone else shush them. He pulled his shirt the rest of the way over his head and pulled off the piece of paper stuck with tape to the back of it. He had to look at it twice before he could read what it said.

Property of Tezuka Kunimitsu.

Ryoma suddenly wore the same dumbfounded expression as the girl during lunch. He looked up quickly, ignoring the chuckles and laughs of his teammates. Tezuka was across the locker room, arms crossed, looking subtly satisfied with himself.

Slowly a grin spread across Ryoma’s face. Evidently Tezuka was only polite when it came to himself...and Ryoma could certainly handle that.

Ryoma sauntered across the room, and to the howls and applause of the rest of the team members, pulled Tezuka down into a long, thorough kiss.

This Valentine's Day had definitely been better than tolerable so far.

Edit: You also get this idiotic Photoshop edit entitled Ryoma's Payback, because it amused me highly. XD